LITTLE ROCK — The first version of Little Rock’s proposed 2013 budget was presented Tuesday, a financial plan that aims to meet all of the promises made during the citywide sales tax increase campaign in 2011, provides raises for many city employees, and proposes a rate increase for trash pickup and recycling.
The budget of more than $171 million is 1.8 percent more than the 2012 amended budget, and includes a $13 million increase in personnel costs partly because of fewer vacancies; more new hires in the police, fire and code enforcement departments; and planned raises.
The proposed budget would give a 3 percent raise to all uniformed, contract and union employees, and up to a 3 percent merit-based raise to all noncontract, nonunion employees. The city’s costs for employee health insurance also increased by about 15 percent this year.
The current version of the budget cuts expenditures in several areas, including about $1.8 million for debt service to pay off previous projects.
City Manager Bruce Moore said the city is also asking the board to consider a waste-disposal rate increase — to be spread out over two years — to pay for the city’s new recycling program, and for two new cells in the landfill, one for regular household waste and one for demolition waste.
The proposal calls for a $2.25-a-month increase in 2013 and a $2 increase in 2014. The 2013 increase would consist of a $1.03 fee for recycling and $1.22 more for collection and landfill expansion. The 2014 increase would pay only for landfill and collection.
Moore said the city has not had an increase in waste-disposal fees since 2004, despite four increases that were proposed to take effect in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011. Moore said none of those proposed increases, most of which were less than $1 each, were implemented by the board.
“We are confident that this increase would take us out five to seven years,” he said. “If we don’t move forward, by this time next year, we’ll be taking our trash somewhere else because there won’t be a cell prepared in the landfill.”
Moore said that in past years, the city reallocated savings from the waste department to help fill budget gaps. The reallocation prevented layoffs of city employees but depleted the waste department’s $7 million reserve that was earmarked for opening new cells at the landfill.
Several directors raised concerns about implementing an increase on the heels of several other comprehensive utility increases, a millage extension and the citywide sales-tax increase that started in January.
Central Arkansas Water’s board of directors approved a two-part increase in its water rates — one of almost 4 percent for residential customers in 2013 and another 4 percent for those customers in 2014. Businesses can expect to see a 3.5 percent average increase both years, but that increase will depend on how much water they consume.
The increase was passed to help pay for upgrading the utility’s water treatment facilities to comply with new Environmental Protection Agency regulations set to go into effect next year.
The Little Rock Wastewater Utility also passed a series of planned rate increases for the next five years — an average residential rate increase of about 5 percent this year, and a planned increase of 4.5 percent in 2013, 2.5 percent in 2014 and 4.75 percent in 2016. Business customers will see higher increases across the board, but those will also depend on how much water they use.
Those increases were passed to help pay for measures mandated by a 2001 Sierra Club lawsuit settlement.
“I’m sorry, I cannot support this,” At-Large Director Joan Adcock said of the proposed trash pickup rate increase. “Citizens do not want another increase in anything coming from this board. I’d like for you to go back and find another way.”
Ward 6 Director Doris Wright asked that Moore and the city staff consider changing the trash pickup schedule to absorb some of the costs and forgo the rate increase.
“With the larger recycling bins, I put my waste out way less often. I don’t generate enough waste to put it out every week,” she said. “Could we not look at picking it up less often, say every other week? One week would be recycling, the next could be trash.”
Other notable changes in the proposed 2013 budget include:
Spending part of the city’s reserves from a $20 fee collected on district court fines to help pay to expand capacity at the Pulaski County jail next year to accommodate 80 additional prisoners.
Contributing $100,000 to the Metro Little Rock Alliance, a 12-county economic development organization.
Increasing the Central Arkansas Transit Authority contribution by $697,000, partly for two new routes inside the city.
Replacing grant funding set to expire this year in several city departments, including funding 18 firefighter positions that otherwise would be lost.
City leaders plan to continue the budget discussions Tuesday at the board’s agenda meeting before scheduling a series of community meetings to discuss the proposals.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 11/21/2012